This invention relates to joining or connecting textile yarns of a variety of types to each other as when yarn is parted or broken and more particularly to splicing yarn to maintain continuous operation of a textile machine fed from packages of yarn in a creel as in the forming of pile carpets by tufting machines having relatively large creels associated therewith.
In the tufting of carpets the creels for the packages of yarn have the yarn packages arranged in cooperating pairs, one package being the running package of yarn and the other package adapted to serve as a reserve package. The trailing end of yarn from the running package is connected to the leading end of the reserve package as by the creel attendant manually tying the ends together or by the attendant using an adhesive to adhesively splice the yarns together.
Neither of these conventional techniques for connecting yarns has been entirely satisfying. The large size of knot resulting from the manually tied yarns has oftentimes presented critical problems in the form of tufting machine stoppage particularly for certain larger sizes of yarn due to yarn breakage resulting from snagging of the tied knots on the tufting needles preventing their passage through the eyes of the tufting needles. On the other hand the use of adhesive is messy to handle and necessitates the creel attendant always carrying a container of adhesive on their body.
Air splicers are also known in the prior art but are not widely used because of their bulky nature, high cost and tedious and time consuming method of operation. In these air splicers the ends of the yarns to be spliced are arranged within the bore or passageway of the splicer beside each other and facing in opposite directions. The bore is typically open-sided as by being provided with a slot extending along its length which may have a lid for closing the slot. In operation pressurized air is directed transversely into the bore to effect entanglement of the fibers or filaments of the ends of the yarn with each other.